You'll Never Know
by floatsodelicately
Summary: Harry is fed up with Ron and Hermione's jealousy games. When he confronts Hermione about it, he realises that it might not be a game on both sides.
1. Chapter 1

_ "You'll never know,_

_Unless you take it there"_

_You'll Never Know – The Maine_

* * *

Harry slumped down into the chair opposite Hermione at her favourite table in the library. It was getting late and she had parted ways with him and Ron right after dinner, saying something about next week's Potions essay. Ron had stormed into the dorm in a mood, something that had become increasingly common in the last month and had flopped onto his bed in a huff. Harry's questions about what was wrong was answered with muffled grunts that he didn't investigate. It was clear what was wrong. He left it for a few minutes until Ron had calmed down slightly. The redheaded boy turned over, staring up at the ceiling above his bed.

"He was all over her."

Harry sighed, sitting upright and looked over at his best friend. He knew that Ron was upset and jealous about Hermione, and was conveniently ignoring the fact that he had been with Lavender for months and had been all over her, while Hermione was far more reserved about public displays of affection. He doubted that Cormac had been '_all over'_ Hermione as Ron said. He had a tendency to exaggerate and he wasn't quite sure what Hermione was doing with McClaggen.

Both of his best friends had picked annoying significant others. First there was Ron with Lavender simpering and mooning over him and more often than not, shoving her tongue down his throat. Then came Hermione with the Quidditch crazed McClaggen who never ceased to irritate him during practise or just in general. At least they didn't snog all the time like Won-Won and Lav-Lav, but he had heard some rumours about them getting hot and heavy in empty corridors and once in the library when Madam Pince was heard telling the Gryffindor prefect off for the first time in six years – something that hadn't even happened when she had torn a page out of the book rather than take two minutes to check it out to rush to Dumbledore in their second year.

Being best friend to both of them, Harry had to listen to all of their complaints. Hermione crying when Ron and Lavender had kissed after the game, Ron getting annoyed when Hermione had taken McClaggen to the Slug Club party, Hermione getting annoyed when she had taken McClaggen to the Slug Club party…the complaints had changed shortly after that. Ron began complaining more about Lavender's clinginess and Hermione's distance, Hermione was irritated with Lavender's constant presence and bitchy comments, but she was distracted by something…she didn't complain about McClaggen as much. Only that she had to stay later in the library some nights because he had distracted her, she didn't say how. Sometimes she mentioned him saying something rude about Ron and Ginny, but even Harry had a hard time defending Ron against McClaggen's comment, Ron had become increasingly hostile about the Hermione/Lavender/McClaggen situation and wasn't shy about it.

Their relationship was strained, which meant that Harry was spending more time with Ron, and less with Hermione, it was simply too difficult to be around both of them when they started sniping at each other. He had been distracted by Ginny and Dean, too distracted to take note of the fact that Hermione was getting closer to McClaggen than he realised. He was tired of it though, tired of their anger and jealousy and games. So that was how he found himself sitting across from Hermione, with a troubled frown on his face.

"So…"

Hermione's head snapped up, apparently she hadn't noticed him sit down at her table. "Oh, hi Harry."

"Hermione," he sighed. "Don't you think this has gone on for long enough?"

She bristled and shut her book before looking back at him. "What exactly are you talking about?"

He knew from her icy tone that he should tread carefully, but he was exhausted with it all. There was too much teenage angst this year, between this mess and Malfoy being up to something, as well as Sirius' death all those months ago, Harry was fed up.

He groaned and fell back in his seat. "You know what I mean! You and Ron and these _stupid games,_ all this jealousy game nonsense, I've had it!"

She went to interrupt but he cut her off, "He dumped Lavender last night, you really don't have to carry on with this McClaggen stuff. We can just go back to-"

"Back to what, Harry? What are these games that you're suggesting that I'm playing?" she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

Knowing that he was on thin ice, he tried a gentler approach. "I'm just saying that we can go back being best friends again and maybe you…you and Ron could…"

"Ron and I could what? Harry?"

"Hermione, you know full well what I mean," he said sharply, this changing from soft to tough thing was driving him mad, he had been doing this with Ron all afternoon as well. "Ron likes you, you like Ron, you can be together now if you jus-"

"Like_d," _she corrected.

"W-what?"

"I like_d_ Ron, past tense. I asked Ron to the party, he clearly wasn't interested. You can't be mad at me for seeing someone who is."

"If it's just finding someone who's interested then-"

"No, it's not that. Cormac likes me, he made it clear to me. He doesn't moan or groan when I go off on a tangent, he doesn't mock me when I do things the muggle way when I'm stressed, he doesn't bore me with Quidditch talk-"

"He's obsessed with Quidditch!"

"Yes, but he's been teaching me rather than rambling on about wronski feints and the bloody Chudley Cannons-"

"But you don't like Quidditch!"

"I do," she replied snappishly. "I just don't like playing. If I wanted to fall to my death from a great height, I'd love nothing more than chasing snitches and getting beaten up by bludgers, but as it stands, I prefer my feet on the ground."

Harry sighed, "We've gotten off topic. I thought you didn't like him."

She shrugged, "I didn't know him."

"And you do now?" he asked, unsure of what answer he wanted. He roomed with four boys and at least one of them – Seamus – had drunkenly described how he'd like to _get to know_ Hermione which had resulted in firm smacks from all the other boys in their dorm.

"Did you know Cho?"

"What? How does that-"

She interrupted his question, "You were head over heels in love with Cho for ages, did you know her?"

"Yes, not that well, but-"

Hermione carried on over him, "I didn't say that I was in love with Cormac, but I've gotten to know him and I like him. He toned it down after the party, he took me to Hogsmeade to make up for all of that. My mum's always said that 'You never know unless you take it there'." She shrugged, looking away from Harry's surprised gaze. "So when he asked, I gave him another chance. I'm sorry if Ron has suddenly decided that I've wronged him somehow, but it's not fair that you assume that I'm being cruel or vindictive-"

Harry lurched forward, reaching over the table towards her, "I never said that!" he squeaked.

"You may as well have, telling me to put a stop to all of this 'jealousy game nonsense'!"

"I-I-" Harry floundered for a response.

"'I-I-' _nothing,_ Harry. Why can't I have a relationship without it being about Ron?" her voice hitched as she continued. "I'm not going to ask you to pick a side. It's juvenile and ridiculous and it honestly doesn't matter," she looked over his shoulder and began packing up her books and parchment.

"I don't want to – wait, what do you mean it doesn't matter?"

She stood up, looking down at him sadly, as if he should know the answer. "Because you already picked Ron," she answered as she swept her book off the desk and walked away from the table.

Harry stared at the place that she had been for a moment before jumping out of his seat and turning to rush to follow her. When he did, he saw that she hadn't made it that far.

He couldn't see her face, but he saw her shoulders trembling as they did when she cried. He saw someone moving quickly towards her and started to go to her, only to pause when he caught the scowl on McClaggen's face as he glared at him.

They turned to go, Hermione's shoulder's shaking less as Cormac wrapped his arm around her and pulled her to him. He couldn't hear what he said to her, he was too far to her his whisper, but he did hear Hermione's sniffle followed by a sob that he had never wanted to cause. Her boyfriend, because that's what he clearly was, not some guy she was using to make Ron jealous like they had believed, rubbed her arm comfortingly and wiped the tears from her face. They reached the doors of the library when Cormac turned around again.

If looks would kill, Cormac McClaggen would have slaughtered The Boy-Who-Lived where he stood. And he felt like he deserved nothing more than that.

* * *

A.N. Oneshot?


	2. Chapter 2

**_Last chapter:_**_They turned to go, Hermione's shoulder's shaking less as Cormac wrapped his arm around her and pulled her to him. He couldn't hear what he said to her, he was too far to her his whisper, but he did hear Hermione's sniffle followed by a sob that he had never wanted to cause. Her boyfriend, because that's what he clearly was, not some guy she was using to make Ron jealous like they had believed, rubbed her arm comfortingly and wiped the tears from her face. They reached the doors of the library when Cormac turned around again. If looks would kill, Cormac McClaggen would have slaughtered The Boy-Who-Lived where he stood. And he felt like he deserved nothing more than that._

* * *

Harry slept in the next morning, as did Ron, and so they only had 10 minutes to get their breakfast before they headed off to Care of Magical Creatures. Ron had slept in because Harry was basically his alarm clock, with his bedroom at home being above the twins with the various explosions and shouts at all hours, he had developed the ability to sleep through just about anything. Harry on the other hand, had been up half the night waiting for Hermione and McClaggen's names to reappear on the Marauder's map. After Hermione had left the library in tears the night before, Harry had rushed to the Gryffindor common room but she and her boyfriend were nowhere in sight. He decided to check the map and found them making their way to the seventh floor where Hermione paced back and forth and the two names then disappeared into the Room of Requirement.

They reached the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall and saw that Neville, Seamus and Dean were almost finished, having left the dorm without waking them. Ginny was sat next to Dean but soon turned her attention to them and the boys were levelled with a glare to out-do McGonagall's.

"Gin," Ron started with a mouth half full of eggs. "What are you-"

Ginny leaned closer towards them, still looking angry and hissed, "Where is Hermione?!"

Harry and Ron exchanged a look before Ron swallowed his eggs and scoffed. "She's probably off with that idiot, McClaggen," he grumbled, looking disgusted.

Ginny rolled her eyes and missed Harry's guilty expression, "Well, I hope that she is because no one else has seen her."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked. He hadn't seen their names before he had wiped the map this morning, but had assumed that they would have left the Room of Requirement.

"I mean I've asked everyone. I asked Fay and what's-her-name, they haven't seen her, I asked Parvarti and Lavender – what crawled up her butt anyway? She was in a foul mood-"

"Ron broke up with her," Harry informed her.

"That explains it," Ginny said rolling her eyes once more. "Can't imagine why though, would you want to attach yourself to _that_?" she pointed at Ron who had bitten into a too-hot sausage and was gulping down pumpkin juice to recover. "Disgusting, Mum would have a fit if she saw you, you know…"

"Shove off Gin," Ron coughed.

She shook her head, "Anyway, they said they hadn't seen her since classes ended yesterday and her bed didn't look slept in either." The boys both paled at this news. "And I asked Katie and her boyfriend, none of the seventh years have seen her _or _Cormac…did something happen?"

Ron shrugged, looking uncomfortable with the knowledge that Hermione had probably been with her boyfriend all night and turned back to his breakfast, only having a couple of minutes before they would have to leave.

Harry, on the other hand, looked down guiltily, and Ginny caught it this time. The redhead was surprised, she couldn't remember Harry ever falling out with Hermione without Ron being involved first; their fights in third year left the trio separated but the disagreement was mostly between Hermione and Ron, it had never been between Hermione and Harry. She had spent her earlier years at Hogwarts jealous of Hermione, since she was always with Harry and they were so obviously close, a lot of the other girls were envious that she had the attention of the Boy-Who-Lived. But after spending enough time with them, Ginny had seen that they were more like siblings, which made sense, with both of them having quite lonely childhoods and finding comfort in that closeness. For Harry to upset Hermione, something bad must have happened.

Seeing that no one else at the table had noticed Harry's sudden shiftiness and guilt-ridden expression, Ginny opted to leave it until later, when they might have worked it out themselves, but she wanted to know what had happened. She pushed her plate away and leaned closer to Harry, not noticing his blush as she did so.

"We are talking about this later."

Harry gave a quick nod and returned to moving his beans around his plate while Ginny picked up her bag and quickly pecked Dean on the cheek before heading off to Charms. Maybe Hermione had the right idea. Seeing Ginny with Dean caused his heart to plummet into his stomach, that feeling of jealousy and heartbreak was something that Hermione was not a stranger to after Ron's dalliance with Lavender. But Hermione had moved past it, she had moved on and begun a new relationship with McClaggen who, as annoying as he was, seemed to care about her. He hadn't really noticed Ginny as anything but his friend and teammate and Ron's little sister until she started dating Dean. For a while, it had seemed as though the two would break up with their constant bickering and arguments, but they had patched it up apparently.

The clock chimed and they rose from their seats, Ron nabbing one half of a bacon sandwich before the plates vanished back to the ktichens, and made their way to Transfiguration. They were the last ones there, rushing into the room only seconds before the door closed behind them, and Harry was relieved to see Hermione sat in her usual seat near the front next to Susan Bones. He knew that he had to make it up to Hermione somehow, but the sad look in her eyes when he settled into the seat beside Ron – even though it was the only seat left in the room – was enough to know that he'd have a lot of making up to do.

* * *

A.N. So this got a surprisingly good response and a lot of reviews saying to continue it so I'm going to :) People liked nice-Cormac and Harry realising that he sides with Ron over Hermione most of the time so I added in Ginny noticing that a little as well. About the pairings, do people want Harry with Ginny? I kind of set it up so he's trying to move on and Ginny's happy, but that can change during the story so...Ron and Lavender will not be paired together and Hermione and Cormac will not be breaking up.


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